A New wine Celebration

Matthew 9:9-17

For most of you it has been a long time, but have you thought about the call Jesus has put on your life? What was it that caused you to say yes to his offer of discipleship? In short why are you a Christian?

At our retirement party (I‘ve only had one official retirement; what I’m doing now is serving in a retired relationship, whatever that means) my son’s Ed and Tim closed the celebration by singing “Thank You” it is a number that tells a scene in heaven when the people influenced by another thank that person for telling them about Jesus. After the song was over Ed said something that really resonated, “Of seven children, we have seven Christians,” and then he said that while they accepted Jesus on their own, that is a personal decision, Alice and I had paved the way.

Do you remember the why and how of your decision? Matthew certainly did. A tax collector, one who was viewed with suspicion and disdain by the people who lived next to him, he was worse than a person from the wrong side of the tracks, he had gotten his wealth on the backs of his friends. Matthew was not a building block for a movement that wanted to bring others to relationship with God. And maybe you haven’t been either. But Jesus called Matthew.

Somewhere, somehow you have heard that call. Or, perhaps the call is still sounding and you are trying to decide . . . Matthew made his life changing decision at the moment of Jesus call. Listen to how the story is told: As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth, “Follow me” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. (Mt 9:9 NIV)

Now there are two things that happen out of Matthew’s encounter with Jesus. 1. He invites Jesus and he invites his friends to dinner. Matthew didn’t become a “hide your light under a bushel” Christian! He wanted to share this decision he made about his life with those important to him. The point is when you are a follower of Jesus it impacts your life. Matthew got up from his tax table, he made a radical change in who he was and he shared that change with others. The life of Christ in you does that. Jesus accepts you as you are, but you can not stay there. Yes, Sainthood is a process, but it has a definite beginning.

For Matthew, and I would argue for all Christians, the beginning is a celebration – a celebration shared with others. Probably the most import note about that celebration is that it is shared with Jesus; he is present. Jesus is not ashamed to be with you in your circles. I don’t get the impression that the dinner hosted by Matthew was a time of reading the riot act about the need to change the ways his friends acted. As a matter of fact Jesus was so well accepted by Matthew’s friends that the religious people of the day were greatly troubled. I mean would a good United Methodist ever go into a bar and expect Jesus to go with him or her?

And that’s point 2 about Matthew’s following Jesus. Matthew widened the circle of Jesus friends and Jesus fit the circle. Not everyone fits the mold of a traditional church person. Not everyone likes the standard hymns we sing or relates to the prayer life we live. Not everyone fits into a cookie cutter Christianity; but Jesus fits them and meets them where and as they are. You will find Jesus in the State Police Barracks, in the School hallways, at the auctions, in the nursing homes, crying with the lonely and holding the hand of the addict. He is there – so much is he there that the religious people of the day (can you say of 2011?) ask his followers “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners.” (Mt. 9:11 NIV)

If you will, Christianity spreads in these United States, in the world, because one person meets Jesus, gets excited and tells another. Christianity has no ground rules for who is able to meet Jesus (sadly the church sometimes does – sadly we are now the ones asking why Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners.) No, the truth is that if Christianity no longer speaks to the hearts of our neighbors it is because we are standing in the way of Jesus. Not deliberately – there isn’t a person in this room that doesn’t want Jesus in the lives of their family or their friends, that includes me, but when I put restrictions upon how my Lord can work, when I choose the people worthy of his salvation, my lack of relevance in today’s world projects on to his love for all the hurting.

I want to tell you, UMCOR is very relevant in Haiti and New Zealand and Japan and New Orleans. When nets are distributed in Africa, the message of Jesus’ love becomes very relevant. When Teen Challenge frees an addict from the ravishes of drugs, Jesus is real. When you stand at the side of a dying person and comfort them into the hands of God, you are very relevant. You see none of those situations depend upon stations of life; they are made real only by Jesus love for all of God’s people. Jesus came to Matthew because he saw him as a person loved by God; are there any other criteria for sharing Jesus?

Think of some of the stories you have heard concerning the recent tragedies of our world. I want to tell you that when the aid has come in the name of Jesus, there has been great celebration. Sorrow and tragedy abounded, but as rescuers arrived –it was almost party time. You have heard the story of the miracle baby of the Tsunami, you have heard of the presumed dead being pulled from the rubble only to be found alive.

When the fullness of Jesus Christ is presented, when Jesus is present, it is not time to fast and wear sack-cloth and ashes; it is time to rejoice, to have a new wine celebration. Jesus is so different, his purpose, his followers and his love are so huge that the former systems of belief or rituals for living simply can not contain all the Jesus brings. Again to quote Jesus: “no one sews a patch of un-shrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Mt.9:16,17 NIV)

Brothers and sisters, when the church tries to accommodate the culture, when we preserve the brokenness of life, we are pouring new wine in old wineskins. We are, if you will, patching a torn garment with that which destroys it. Our Jesus is God’s new wine. Our church is God a live in the world bringing God’s Spirit and God’s life style to a world discouraged and broken from the life of law and legalism. When you attempt to live both, having the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ but holding on to the systems and mores of life as usual; Jesus will burst out and the system will lie in ruins. Perhaps worse, is to try and contain the new wine in the old wineskins and have it be contaminated by what has gone on before. Jesus will not be contained or contaminated and he invites his Church, you and I, to a celebration in the life of love as given by our Father whose resources know no boundaries. We are invited to a “New Wine Celebration!”

In living out that celebration we find our family enlarged to include all of God’s children. We are freed from deciding who or whom for God calls whom God will. We are freed from guarding the resources of life for it is God who not only provides but sends the rain on both the just and the unjust. We are freed from “getting even” or even making sure others keep the letter of the law, for God has determined that grace is the operative word. Ours is the joy of reconciling the world, our neighbors and family to God. Ours is the celebration of life in all its forms. If we mourn it is because so many refuse the gift God has offered in Jesus. If we mourn it is because the systems of the world are so unjust that there is poverty and abuse and lust and all the works of the flesh. But even here we are able to celebrate for Jesus has invited us to be a part of his ministry: we are to feed his sheep; to care for the least; to heal and drive out the demons of this world. Ours is the celebration of New Wine as we care for God’s garden and wipe the tears from the eyes of God’s children. And beyond all this, ours is the New Wine celebration of an eternity of being in the presence of our Father who loves us and has called us home.

So how do we live out this celebration? How do we minister to a world that is jaded, suspicious and desperate for love? How do we minister to one another? Jesus met people in their need and at eye level. Jesus invested himself in individuals and brought them into the comfort of a family – what if we did that? What if we lived among our family and neighbors out of the surplus of God abundance and God’s love? What if our concern was not of salaries or building needs but what if we as the individuals and people of God asked God to show us those whom God loves and invite them to celebrate the New Wine God offers? Could we possibly live Jesus love in this community? That would be a new Wine Celebration. Amen